


The Tale of a Madman With a Box

by oharlem



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gallifrey, Gen, slight AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-09
Updated: 2012-12-09
Packaged: 2017-11-20 18:06:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/588199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oharlem/pseuds/oharlem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He is a traveler of time, a madman with a box, a boy in a man's body- he is the Doctor. And that is all."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tale of a Madman With a Box

**Author's Note:**

> The details of the Doctor's past are slightly inaccurate, so this fic is labeled as an AU. This is completely a speculation and re-imagining on my part. Enjoy.~  
> -Misfit

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, lived a man. But he was not a man yet, no, he was just a boy. A boy with brown hair and deep eyes, who laughed at the suns and and smiled with his friends and played with his brothers. A happy boy. His name was John- John Smith- though only his mother called him that and, even then, only when she was angry. Everyone else called him Doctor. Because that's what he wanted to be when he grew up, a doctor, the Doctor.

People called him mad for wanting to do something mundane when he was a Time Lord and could do and see so much more. But the boy would laugh and say he had his reasons. For he wanted to help people, and not just his people but the people of a tiny, far off planet-the people of Earth, humans.

The boy's planet was called Gallifrey. Twin suns hung in the burnt orange sky, high above the mighty citadel encased in a glass dome where he lived. As far as his little eyes could see, snow-capped mountains stretched with slopes of deep red grass. And in the spring when the flowers would bloom and the trees would awake from their slumber, silver leaves sprouted across the forests in shimmering waves. And the second sun would rise in the south and cast its glow over everything in sight-and it was beautiful. And he loved it, he loved his planet, his home.

The boy grew older.

He attended school and took eight subjects every day. But his favourite subject-oh, his favourite subject was history. The history past, history future, and history in the making. But it was the history of Earth, of humans that fascinated him the most. He learned of time and space travel and yearned to leave his home planet and see the worlds, see Earth. For his childhood aspiration of being a doctor burned on in his dreamer's hearts, and he longed to open the eyes of the humans to all that he knew.

When the boy was no longer a boy, but a young man of nineteen, he was presented with a seed. He waited and nurtured the living creature until it, like him, blossomed and grew into a beautiful ship. His very own TARDIS- Time And Relative Dimension in Space. And so, the young man left home and traveled the universes. He saw worlds and met species that, before, had only been words on a page and stories spoken by mouth.

The boy grew older still.

Years had passed and he was home visiting for the holidays. He was with his mother in the kitchen when it started. The war- the Time War. Long, arduous weeks passed as the Time Lords fought the Daleks and the boy, now a man, became a soldier. He fought on the front lines, defending both his planet and the entirety of creation, he fought for all that he knew and all that he loved. The man, the protector of time, and the only survivor.

He watched from the window of his TARDIS as two species, two worlds, burned. Lost and now alone, the man fled. He visited the Earth he had so dreamed of as a child, hoping to find solace in the beauty of the, still breathing, human race.

Centuries passed and the boy grew no older.

He did find peace in the human race, learning to love their ignorance and bravery, though it often bordered on stupidity, and showing them the beauty and darkness of the world beyond their borders. Often, he visited and took up a companion for his travels for he was now not one to stand for solitude.

Death and destruction followed the man wherever he went, a curse on the last of the Time Lords, doomed to endanger those whom he saved. For years he has come and gone on Earth, leaving small traces of his presence, a mystery to those who know him and a shadow to those unaware.

He is like fire and ice and rage. He is like the night, and the storm in the heart of the sun. He is ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the universe. And...he is wonderful.

The Doctor, the young boy from Gallifrey, who laughs at danger and smiles in the face of adversity. He has grown older but he shall never grow up. He is but a child with fantasies of an ideal world, where death is but a story and no one is alone, yet his eyes speak of a pain so deep and a loneliness that numbs his soul. But, still, he carries on.

He is a traveler of time, a madman with a box, a boy in a man's body- he is the Doctor.

And that is all.


End file.
